Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
ENERGY AND EXERGY ANALYSIS OF AN AROMATICS PLANT. IMPLEMENTATION OF TWO THERMAL ENERGY RECOVERY UNITS
Submission Author:
Carlos Pinho , Portugal , Brazil
Co-Authors:
Ana Neves Vilarinho, João Moreira de Campos, Carlos Pinho
Presenter: Carlos Pinho
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-2669
Abstract
The exergy analysis complementing a previous energy analysis, allows a deeper understanding of the implementation of energy efficiency procedures. As such, after an energy and exergy analysis of an aromatics plant from a refinery in the northern region of Portugal, the most important equipment components in terms of energy recovery measures were easily identified. Accordingly, besides several minor recommendations concerning the thermal efficiency of the plant, two main proposals for the exploitation of the wasted thermal energy, without affecting the chemical operation, were proposed. The first proposal is the application of an organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), fed by the wasted thermal energy released by two air coolers and a furnace, producing around 1.55 MW of electricity, corresponding to 59.1 % of the plant electricity needs. The second proposal is the application of a cogeneration unit producing 11.4 MW of electricity and 14 MW of thermal power. Considering only the implementation of the cogeneration, the energy efficiency of the aromatics plant would rise from 0.8 % to 7%, whereas the corresponding exergy efficiency would go from the present value of 65.6 % to 66.1 %. By combining the cogeneration with the ORC, the energy efficiency of the aromatics plant would rise to 8.1 % while the exergy efficiency would rise to 67 %.
Keywords
energy efficiency, Exergy efficiency, cogeneration, Organic Rankine, Aromatics
